Greenville board says no need for mooring ordinance or harbor master on Moosehead

GREENVILLE, Maine — The Greenville Planning Board says that, for now, the town does not need a mooring ordinance or a harbor master.

Concerns about the number of moorings on Moosehead Lake, especially in the East and West Coves, first surfaced in 2006. A committee was appointed to work on a draft ordinance but the town never had the funds to have an attorney review it, according to Jack Hart, code enforcement officer. The draft ordinance was revisited in recent years after selectmen asked the planning board for a recommendation on the matter.

Hart told selectmen Wednesday the planning board has held lengthy discussions on the matter, but came to no conclusion on what areas needed regulation and enforcement. He said the board took into consideration that there have been no incidents, that previous issues have been resolved and there have been no issues raised by aircraft and cruise operators. In addition, the board said the town should not be burdened with additional administrative duties.

“I guess the economy probably has chased away the need for that [an ordinance] at the moment,” said Maynard Russell of the Moosehead Marine Museum, which operates the Katahdin steamboat. In the nine years he has been with the museum, Russell said the East Cove has gotten smaller as people have extended their moorings and docks. He said there used to be a mooring in steamboat Katahdin’s way that had an seaplane on it, but that issue has been resolved.

“It’s just less and less room for any error,” he said. “My personal opinion is that it will be needed in the future, how long in the future from now remains to be seen.”

Since there are no municipal regulations now in place for moorings, resident Jim Castonguay asked how the town could undo what’s in place in the event an ordinance is adopted later. “If we have no standards, how are we going to undo the standards we don’t even know about and find out about the moorings that we don’t know about?”

Hart said Castonguay’s question was a good one. “We tried to answer that and this is where we are; people just don’t think there is an issue or a problem that needs an ordinance at this time,” he said.

Selectmen on Wednesday also rescheduled a public hearing on a dangerous building owned by Daniel and Elmer MacFadyen on Lower Lincoln Street to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, in the municipal building. The hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, but Hart said not all of the parties involved with the property had received their notices.